
Gone are the diet-craze days when "fat-free" products were king, however, the supermarket still abounds with "light" versions of different products. Reduced fat or low calorie can mean higher salt or sugar contents or a longer list of unidentifiable ingredients. Sometimes it's all too easy to trick yourself into thinking you are doing better by reaching for the seemingly healthier version. What do you know about tricky "light" labels? Take our quiz to find out!
What Do You Look at First When Reading a Food Label?

We all have different food needs. So when it comes to label reading, someone trying to lose weight may first look at the calorie amount, while someone training for a marathon may look at how much protein a product contains. What about you?
New Country of Origin Food Label Law
I like eating seasonally and locally, but I am a realist too. I know much of the food we all eat comes from outside the US. Remember the tomato and hot pepper salmonella scare?
Food regulations vary from country to country and many are not as strict as ones in the US, which can pose some health risks. Now a new food label law comes into effect that will require companies to state where certain products such as meat, produce, and other products came from. Now you'll be able to tell if the foods you buy are imported or not, and from which countries they were produced.
The country of origin labeling requirement has been years in the making, and now that it's here, the law is a little confusing since not all foods are covered under the new regulations. Certain foods that are processed such as roasted peanuts, breaded chicken, and bacon are excluded from this law, as are bags of mixed lettuce. Retailers have six months from now to learn and implement the new labeling rules, so you should begin seeing labels in stores relatively soon. This mandatory labeling could help sell products since many people will appreciate knowing their apples came from a local farm. The food origin labels might also discourage people from buying products from unsafe sources, such as with the recent issues in China. The thing is though, consumers have a right to know where their food was grown or packaged. I'm in full support of this law and look forward to the day when the government requires all food retailers to state where their foods come from. What do you think? Are you happy about this new law or not really phased by it? Will these new labels affect how you shop?
Do You Read Food Labels?
The discussion about whether or not soy sauce is actually soy sauce made me wonder about food labels in general and whether or not people actually read them. I'm fortunate enough not to have any major food allergies and have stupidly stopped counting calories years ago, so I rarely look at the actual labels (although I try not to buy too many processed food items, so in theory I wouldn't have that many labels to read). How about you? Do you read food labels?